Wednesday, August 10, 2016

A Rant: Think Before You Speak and Other Lessons Trump Could Learn From My Mother

In 1971, I was born into a role that would require to me to exercise discretion. The expectation would be that, just because I heard it, doesn't mean I repeat it. You see my Father was a Pastor. Living in his home, being by his side I heard and saw a lot through the years. People would entrust him with their deepest concerns and struggles. And there were times when on occasion I would become aware of such things. And I never said a single word. Why? Because my mother as a mantra always said...

THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK

Now, as I grew older my sister and I would have a tendency as all sisters do, to fight and bicker. Those fights would on occasion, boil over into one of us saying something hurtful to the other. We would each justify our positions and my mother was having none of it. She would admonish us by saying .....

KEEP YOUR WORDS SWEET BECAUSE ONE DAY YOU MAY HAVE TO EAT THEM

As I grew older and my opinions grew as quickly as I did. I would always share my thoughts freely. In my younger years I never curated my thoughts. I would share them as bluntly and as truthfully as I believed them. I actually thought this was the upstanding thing to do. I had no idea that maybe people would be receptive if I listened more, measured my words more, and tempered them more. Again, my mother could be heard in my head saying....

CONSIDER YOUR AUDIENCE

All this to say I think Donald Trump could use my mother on his team of advisers. Donald Trump is a very well educated man with a deep history of conducting his business in the public eye. Over the course of the last 12 months, we have heard him say things that are sensational and sometimes out of line. At times those comments are walked back and other times they are justified. I truly believe we need to create a new word to describe the level of audaciousness we have seen out of Mr. Trump.

Yesterday, I was on my way to dinner and I as I scooted through Rock Center an alert popped up on my phone. I stopped, stepped aside and gave the audio of Donald Trump a listen. I was gobsmacked. I simply could not believe what I was hearing. To me, what he said, was indisputable. Hours later, as I headed home, I was thumbing through the Twitterverse and there they were - justification after justification. I knew what I had heard. And I must agree with a commentator I heard this morning. In essence the concern is that the rhetoric coming out of the Trump campaign, when he wonders off script, is very much like Texas in the early 1960's. And we all know how that turned out.

The sad part is, I believe that Donald Trump is a smart man. I even think there could be an inspiring vision for America under all of that bluster. But, we will never know. Why? Because Donald Trump can't keep his foot out of his mouth. He is up to his knee cap by now. And you can't blame the media...They are simply reporting what he said...This brings me to another thing my mother used to say...

DON'T BLAME OTHERS FOR HOW YOU REACT TO THEIR ACTIONS

Yet, how many times have we heard about Donald Trumps twitter activity in response to one thing or another. This world is a ticking time bomb and so much weighs in the balance. The complexity of which requires a very unique skill set. Jon Meacham, George HW Bush biographer, said this morning on Morning Joe...the future president of the United States needs three things...

PROPORTION

HUMILITY

DIGNITY

We really must ask ourselves at this point, is a vote for Trump worth the risk. This isn't just a buyer beware situation. We are aware of his failings and foibles. Are they acceptable? Is he our voice? Can we as a nation absorb the consequences should this behavior persist? Will we still gain things as a nation despite his lack of self-control. Oh and just for the record, I don't subscribe to the conspiracies that he does this to just keep his name in the news. And as a parent, I am not freaking out that my child will speak just as dis-respectfully as he does because they see "Trump do it." I'm the parent oh my children. But what I do believe is that out of all the Presidents I have known in my short lifetime none of them have been us verbally unhinged as he is. I also know, that never in my lifetime, has the world been at such a boiling point. I would just ask Donald Trump two questions - 1) Do you really want this job? 2) If so, would you please give my mother a call from time to time? She really helped me out, quite a lot.